Snowed In
by FCMgirl
Summary: Penelope accompanies the team on a case, and Prentiss sends the two of them out to interview a retired detective who is a recluse living up in the mountains. The "light" snow that had been forecast turned into much more than that and they have to find shelter somewhere. Rating T for now, will probably change to M at some point.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't often that Penelope joined the team in the field, although it seemed to be happening more and more often, especially after Luke Alvez joined the team. Maybe this was because they worked well together, everyone could see that. With Tara off on another assignment, Prentiss paired Luke and Penelope up to go out and track down Mr. Moorehouse.

The team was working on a case that involved 3 ritualistic murders. They were eerily similarities to 2 cases that happened in a nearby town 25 years ago, but there were very few records and nobody currently on the police force that remembered that case. They did find out that the lead detective still lived in the area, his name was Mr. Moorehouse, but he was a reclusive type, holed up in a cabin about 1.5-2hrs away. Luke and Penelope had gone out to track down the guy and found out what they could. They knew this was highly unlikely the unsub because the guy had a stellar record as a cop, and was almost 80, so Prentiss had sent Penelope with Luke, she hoped Penelope might be able to search through any type of electronic records he might have with him or scan any paper records he didn't want to give up.

They had driven out to see Mr. Moorhouse this morning, it taking a little over 2 hours because it was snowing out in Montana where they were. Mr. Moorehouse was very gruff and not interested in talking at first, until Penelope wore him down and he opened up. Finally, by the end of the visit he'd given them a lot of good information about the previous cases, which they felt certain were connected to the current ones, but unfortunately, he didn't have any good leads from those cases and didn't have any records. He did give them a few names of other people to talk to and promised to call them if he thought of something else. They were headed back to the precinct in the early afternoon when the roads started to deteriorate significantly.

"These roads are dangerous, I wouldn't attempt to drive at all if we weren't in an SUV with 4-wheel drive" Luke remarked as he tried to see enough of the road to stay on it.

Penelope was looking at the weather on her phone, "I don't get it, the radar is acting like there's a big band of heavy snow coming right over us, but the official forecast is only 1-2 inches, there's already way more than that"

"I trust current radar more than some weatherman's report" Luke replied.

"Yeah, well unfortunately it looks like more and more snow is coming, and don't think the roads are going to get better and we haven't gone thru that awful windy section yet" Penelope said, shivering as she remembered that part of the drive over, which involved a windy stretch of road going up the mountain that made her carsick even when the reads were clear.

Prentiss called, Penelope put her on speaker phone, "Hey Prentiss, I am putting you on speaker, Luke is driving"

"How are you guys? I got your message about what you found from Mr. Moorhouse and were tracking those names down but I'm more concerned about you guys and the weather"

"The weather keeps changing and looking more and more ominous" Reid added, altering both Penelope and Luke that they were on the speaker phone on the other end as well.

"Believe me, we are becoming aware of that" Luke said, focusing more on staying on the road than talking. Penelope decided it would be better off if she talked even though he knew better what the conditions were.

"There's already several inches of snow here and its coming down thick. The roads are bad, Luke's doing a great job and thankfully the SUV has 4-wheel drive but I'm not feeling real great about the upcoming windy stretch down the mountain-side"

Luke and Penelope both exhaled sharply as the car in front of them slid off the road, the driver panicking and going off the shoulder, rolling down a hill.

"Uh, Prentiss, the car in front of us just crashed, l think we need to pull over and see if they are alright, can we call you back?"

"Of course, but be careful your safety is the most important thing"

Luke went out into the blizzard to check on the guy instructing Penelope to stay in the car unless he called her to come over. After a while he came back, shivering as he got back in their SUV.

"So?"

"The driver is dead, nothing more we can do" Luke said, simply, knowing Penelope would freak out no matter how he told her.

"Oh my god, how? we have to help him, she started trying to open the doors, Luke stopped her with his arm, turning her to him.

"Look at me - there is nothing to be done. The guy wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the car. The car rolled over him, crushing him. He's gone."

Luke wasn't actually 100% sure the car had rolled over him, but he was 100% sure the guy was dead, and hoped Penelope could accept that.

"Oh my god" she said, in a bit of shock but recognizing the Luke knew better than she did what they could or couldn't do to help "what do we do?"

"Well, I'm going to get back on the road and try to keep going, you should call Prentiss and update her so she knows what's going on, and if you can use your phone to look up any kind of hotel, restaurant that is at all nearby, I think we need to pull off and take shelter somewhere till the storm passes"

Penelope started calling Prentiss as Luke tried to get back on the road. It was a struggle but finally he managed to get them going again. She told Prentiss about their plan and started looking for anything.

"Luke there isn't anything until after the windy stretch. At the base there appears to be a gas station and a restaurant or diner, and a couple miles more down the road there appears to be a little down with a couple restaurants, a grocery store and at tiny motel" Penelope said in frustration, while still searching for something better.

"We can't make it through that stretch with the roads like this, it'd be suicide" Luke said, realizing that even though the elevation would be going down and the snow might be slightly less the incline alone was going to cause chaos.

"What do we do?"

"We'll hole up in the SUV if we have to" he said looking around, "are you sure you don't see any kind of buildings around?" he asked "at this point I think knocking on a stranger's door and seeing if they'd let us in might not be out of the question"

"Would they even let strangers in?"

"Well it helps if you can show FBI credentials" Luke said, "I think", remembering that out here in Montana in these rural areas the FBI wasn't always so welcome, but he had a feeling in this weather anyone would take pity on them.

"All I see is what looks like on the map a tiny cabin, a driveway of sorts about 500ft ahead, to the right" Penelope said

"I think I see it" Luke said, pointing to this tiny structure at the end of a long dirt, or snow covered road. "do you see it?"

"Yeah I see it, and it looks a lot smaller than it does on the map but I'm pretty sure that's the same thing"

Luke slowed down a lot to navigate turning onto this tiny road, it probably had almost 6" of untouched snow, and it was hard to see but eventually they made it up to the cabin. There were no lights and no smoke coming from the cabin.

"I think it's abandoned Garcia" Luke said, looking around not seeing any signs pointing to someone being here.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Garcia said, thinking at least now they wouldn't have to convince the stranger to let them in, "I mean assuming we can break in? can we do that?"

"I have no problem breaking in, given the situation, we can always pay to have any damage fixed after we leave, but I'm more concerned about there not being any heat, or water if it's not being lived in"

"Oh, good point" Garcia hadn't thought of that, but she was still hopeful as she and Luke got out of the car and walked up the steps to the cabin. The door was locked, looking inside it was clear nobody was home, but it looked like someone might have stayed there recently, it wasn't in disrepair.

"I'm going to walk around and see if there is a back door or a window that would be good to get in through"

"Okay" Garcia said, unsure what she should do. She decided to look through her purse and see if she could find a bobby pin, so they could pick the lock if they needed to. She found one and was working on the lock when Luke came back around, shaking his head.

"There's no back door and the windows are too high, I think our best bet might be these windows on the porch" he said as he realized that Garcia was trying to pick the lock on the front door. He watched her for a second, amused, but they were both surprised when it actually worked and the door opened.

"I can't believe that worked!" she said happily.

"I'm impressed" Luke admitted. He probably could have gotten the door open but he wasn't sure he could have done it any faster than she had and he loved seeing her smile when she got it open.

They looked around. It was a very simple cabin, 1 story, a bedroom and bathroom in the back, a back room that looked like it functioned as a laundry room/mud room/woodpile storage room, and an open kitchen/living area. There was fireplace, but Luke did not see any heat or air ducts. He noticed a few fans that suggested there was no central air, and thought he saw something that was probably a radiant heat on the wall. It was only slightly warmer inside the cabin than outside, and thankfully there was no wind or snow but it was still far too cold to stay for long.

Garcia looked around, the place was rustic but well cared for, it looked like a family's cabin that they came to occasionally but didn't live in full time, the furnishings were basic-looking but comfortable, the electricity appeared to be turned off given the fact that the lights didn't respond when she flipped a switch. She looked at Luke and shrugged.

"Do we have any other options?"

"Just the car, but that gas won't last us all that long, we've got about 1/3rd of a tank"

"This place has a fireplace, and a bathroom, I vote we stay here and make the best of it. It can't be all that long till someone can come help us or we can get back on the road right?" Penelope's anxiety increased when she thought about spending a night, alone, with him in this cabin.

"I agree" he said, she could see he was formulating a plan in his head. "I'm going to get some of that wood I saw in the backroom and get a fire going. Why don't you look around and see what kind of food or drink you can find?" She nodded and started looking around.

About an hour later they were sitting in front of the fire, each wrapped up in a blanket that she had located, Luke holding a pot he'd rigged up so he could put it close to the fire without hurting himself, satisfied that it was hot enough, he took the hot-cocoa packets Penelope had found and mixed it up, then poured it into two mugs. They sat there, drinking the hot cocoa, and thinking this wasn't all that bad. Penelope had found a fair amount of staples and snacks, things like crackers, nuts, hot cocoa mix, canned soup, beef jerky. it wasn't terribly appetizing, beyond the hot cocoa and the canned soup but they had enough food for several days if need be. Penelope expressed that to Luke and asked how long he thought they'd be stuck here.

"Realistically or hoping?" he asked, before answering both, "I'm hoping that by tomorrow morning the snow will have stopped and by tomorrow afternoon someone can come get us or the roads will be cleared enough that we can drive back" he paused, taking another sip of the hot-cocoa, "Unfortunately, based on the weather radar it might not stop snowing until the next day and if we get 12-15 inches like they are now starting to speculate about, it'll be a lot harder to get the roads cleared, so I think there's a decent chance we might not be able to leave before Thursday"

She realized today was Monday. "Oh my god, that's forever!"

"I'm hoping for Tuesday or Wednesday, but we'll figure something out Chica" he smiled at her, "I'm not about to let you get hurt on my watch, the entire team would kill me"

She scoffed at the idea that the team was the reason but knew that somehow he would find a way to get them through it. She was just anxious about what might happen in between.


	2. Chapter 2

It was now getting very dark. Luke put more wood on the fire and Penelope found a couple Lanterns with candles, lighting those. They had been sitting in the main room, on the couch, and the room was dimly lit by the two lanterns and the fire, but at least they could see. Penelope wondered though, what they were going to do till morning with not enough light to read by, no TV or electronic entertainment (she knew they needed to save their phone batteries for important things, not entertainment), no music, it was eerily quiet, and it wasn't even 8pm yet.

"Luke, what are we going to do for the rest of the evening?" she asked, "It's not even 8pm yet and there is nothing literally that we can do"

"Well, there isn't nothing we can do" he said, winking at her

She scoffed at his suggestion, frowning and trying not to blush.

"I wasn't talking about that" he said laughing at her reaction, "We can talk to each other" he observed, which struck her as funny because in general he was pretty quiet, she was the one that couldn't stop talking.

For a while they did just that, sitting on the couch talking, each wrapped up in a blanket, telling each other stories about their childhood, and lives up until that point. Luke noticed Garcia was leaving out any romantic interests, but realized he was doing the same. He enjoyed getting to know her better, getting to know more of what made her the amazing woman she was today.

He glanced over at the bedroom, which held one double bed. He'd already indicated she should take the bed and he'd take the couch, but if he was honest with himself, he was kind of hoping she'd invite him to share with her, even if only for sleep but he didn't want to push her.

Eventually Garcia got restless and found a pack of cards, they played cards for several hours, exhausting pretty much every 2 person game they knew. Garcia looked at the clock. It was 11pm already. She looked at Luke staring at the fire, and at the back room.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm trying to decide if I should put more wood on the fire. While there is a screen I would normally not want a fire to burn all night long, due to the risk of a spark setting the cabin on fire, but since it's our only heat, I think we do want to continue burning" he explained, "but we're going through the wood pretty fast and I'm not sure how much more might be outside. In the daylight I'll go out and see what I can collect, but I am just debating if I should put more on before we go to sleep"

"I have no idea, but I am fine with whatever you decide" she said as she walked into the bedroom. Which was A LOT colder than the living room. She came back over to him as he put one more log on the fire.

"We have a problem, or rather I guess I do"

He looked at her confused

"that bedroom is FREEZING"

He walked over there and saw what she meant. It was probably 55-60 in the living

room, where the couch was but it was probably 40 in the bedroom. "It's too cold in here to sleep" he observed.

"I thought you were being gallant before, offering to take the couch, but now I'm thinking you were scheming" she said, her voice betraying her, they both knew that was a joke.

Luke was looking around the room trying to figure out why this room was that much colder when they'd left the door open to the living room on purpose. He felt cold air over by the window and noticed the snow building up on the inside. There was some sort of gap in the window allowing snow and cold air in. He showed her, and they stood there for a minute, both trying to figure out what to do.

Penelope thought sharing the couch with Luke was a bad idea, she had a feeling that would lead to intimacy and she already knew she cared about him more than she should. Luke might have agreed on the first part, but for him, any intimacy would not be unwelcome. He liked Garcia, he was attracted to her and while it had the potential for a lot of awkwardness with regards to work, that was the only thing holding him back, so he was not as fearful as she was about what might potentially happen should they share the couch.

He was however, concerned about making her uncomfortable, or pressuring her into more than she was ready for. Particularly since in this situation she was the more vulnerable one and he didn't want her to feel like he was taking advantage of her.

He tried to move the mattress off the frame, thinking he could move that over by the fireplace in the main living area, it would be low but it would be reasonably comfortable for her, but the mattress was ridiculously heavy and/or tied down somehow and it was too dark for him to see what was causing it.

"I don't think the idea of moving the mattress into the living room is going to work, I can't figure out how to get this mattress free and I can't move it"

Penelope joined in to help him but they were unsuccessful, "something we can't see must be holding it down"

"I think tomorrow we can probably figure out in the daylight how to move the mattress into the main room, and we can seal up that window better, but for tonight I think you're stuck sharing with me on the couch"

He hated to see fear in her eyes, "Don't worry - I promise to be a perfect gentleman"

About 15 minutes later Penelope crawled into the mass of covers next to Luke on the couch and was surprised by how warm his body left.

"My god, Chica you're freezing" he commented, surprised by how cold she was

"Yeah, well my California blood wasn't made for insane snowstorms like this"

Luke laughed, "Good thing we're sharing then"

She shifted around, trying to find a more comfortable position, this couch wasn't really big enough for two adults, so unless she wanted stay in a really awkward position, or risk falling off she was going get so close to him. As if he was reading her thoughts, he put his arm around her, pulling her towards him, pressing her back against his chest, and he put on leg over hers so they were in between his. This was infinitely more comfortable, though she could tell he was trying to figure out how to place his other arm. For a little while it was under her head but she could tell it was already falling asleep by the way he'd been shaking it and looking for an alternative. When he placed it around the top of her head it was just dangling out off the couch awkwardly. He found a position that worked, until he realized his hand was basically resting in between her breasts, if she or he shifted slightly he'd be groping her which was so not the perfect gentleman.

She saw where his hand rested and realized why he had pulled it back, trying to find something else but wasn't being successful, so she took his hand and placed it back there between her breasts.

"It's OK if you accidentally cop a feel during the night" she said, causing him to chuckle. "I'll try to behave"

They soon drifted off to sleep and both actually slept really well, despite the conditions. The sun came up and Luke noticed the fire was almost out, but he really didn't want to get up. She was still sleeping, and it was nice and toasty under the covers. He realized that not only did he have his hand on her breast but it was under her dress and her bra, _crap, I must have done that in my sleep._ He was debating whether it would be better to move his hand now and risk waking her or leave it there and risk her catching it. _She did say it was OK_ he reasoned with himself, and he hadn't done it intentionally, so he decided to leave his hand there, and he was quite enjoying the feeling of her breast in his hand if he was honest with himself.


	3. Chapter 3 (correct ch 3)

Sorry guys I posted the wrong chapter here before, it was chapter 3 for another story of mine, this is the proper chapter 3 for Snowed In. Thank you to Cookies03 for pointing it out to me! much appreciated

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The first thing Penelope became conscious of was she started to wake up was a hand caressing her breast. It felt good, but then she wondered why there was a hand on her breast and another one around her waist. For a second when she woke up she didn't know where she was or who was laying behind her. She looked around, starting to remember when she heard that voice "Good morning Beautiful", she blushed before responding "Good morning Luke"

She waited a minute or two, "Ah you can remove your hand anytime" and he was embarrassed that he'd forgotten about that, moving his hand off the couch and whispering "Sorry, I must have been asleep"

She smirked at him, knowing he wasn't sorry, but that it probably was unintentional. She needed to pee, as she started moving around he moved his other arm, freeing her, but when she put an arm outside the blankets she shivered and drew it back in.

"It's way too cold out there and too nice in here for me to get up" she muttered.

Luke smiled, "It is nice in here isn't it?"

She turned around to face him, her legs still between his but now her hips brushing against his cock, and he couldn't stop his erection that started forming. Even worse, he could feel her breasts against his chest and despite thing to think about every non-sexy thing he could he knew she could feel it.

 _Oh my god, he's totally hard_ she realized. _That wasn't an overnight, in his sleep kind of thing either._

While she was flattered, sort-of, that he got aroused by her, she couldn't help but wonder if it was just any female body pressed up that close against him.

Talk about awkward, she didn't know whether it was better to pretend it wasn't there or to bring it up. She knew the one thing she shouldn't do was touch it. She went for ignore, and finally got up to go to the bathroom. She noticed how flushed she was when she got in there and was pretty sure it wasn't just from the cold. When she came out, Luke was up, and had put a few more logs on the fire, and then headed to the bathroom himself.

She spent some time scrounging up some breakfast for them, and heating up some water for hot cocoa, and Luke went outside to try and assess the firewood situation.

He came back in and smiled as he saw Penelope pouring hot cocoa into the mugs, and he took one of the granola bars she offered him, taking a bite before explaining what he'd found

"There is another small wood pile out back, about as much wood as was inside, but apart from that I can't find anything. I did find an axe, so theoretically I could chop down a tree but fresh wood doesn't burn well and most of the trees are pretty tall to be cutting down by oneself in the snow"

"Could I help?"

"If it comes to that I will gladly accept your help, but I think even then it would still be pretty dangerous. There is one smaller tree I think I'm going to go chop up now and bring inside, I don't know if one day would rally make a difference for drying it out but it might help"

"Prentiss is calling" she said, looking at her phone and answering it

"Hello, you've reached the rustic snow lodge, how can we help you?" she said, bringing a smile to his face and to Prentiss's.

"I just wanted to check in and see how you guys were doing. I don't know how much phone battery you have left but are you guys ok?"

"Yeah, we're doing alright. Phone is running low I think I have about 40% battery and Luke's is a little higher, but we're not using them for anything but calling you guys or checking the weather occasionally"

"Are you staying warm?"

"Yeah, we really are doing ok, she said. This cabin doesn't have electricity but it does have a fireplace, and I know Luke is concerned we might run out of firewood but for now that's enough to keep us warm"

"We should have enough for today, it's tomorrow that might be a problem" Luke said, looking out the window "I see it's still snowing"

"Yeah, everyone keeps telling me it is a freak blizzard" Prentiss replied, "I think they're just trying to cover their asses because they failed to warn us about the storm"

"Well, they did tell us it was going to snow, but even the weather apps and radar made it look like it was going to be a light snow, less than 2 inches" Penelope said

"Yeah, well down here we're already at 15" down here, I couldn't find reports up where you guys are but I can't imagine its better"

"I'd say about the same here Prentiss" Luke replied.

"Unfortunately, given the stretch of road and how steep it is, the local fire and rescue said it's far too dangerous to try and drive up there and the winds are too bad to send a helicopter" Prentiss explained.

"If the situation gets really bad I'll fly the dam helicopter myself" Rossi chimed in, "but if you guys are safe, then it's probably better to wait"

"I understand. Don't take any risks on our behalf for now. We're fine. Penelope is probably getting a little sick of me, but we've got food, and a fire, so we are fine for now"

"Hopefully the snow will stop at some point today and we can come get your later to today or first thing tomorrow"

"I think that should be fine, just let us know if things change or if you're coming so we can watch out for you" Luke said, "I'm not sure how visible this cabin is anymore, apart from smoke from the chimney it may just look like a hill of snow"

"Got it, stay warm and safe" Prentiss said, hanging up.

"$100 says those two have already had sex" Rossi said, unable to resist a bet.

"I'm not taking that bet for $1, the real question is whether they already had before the snow, or if they did last night" Prentiss said, knowing she shouldn't but she loved a good bet.

"Fine, $100 that they didn't hook up till the cabin, last night or early this morning"

"Deal, I'm betting that they already had before the cabin"

"Ooh, I want in on a bet" JJ said, walking into the room, "what are we betting on?" matt asked as he also walked in with JJ.

"Oh, just on whether Penelope and "newbie" have hooked up yet or not" Prentiss said shaking her head at herself.

"Ooh, I'll put $100 on they haven't yet, but will before they get out of the cabin or get back here" JJ said

"Well, I'm probably insane, but since it's the only option left, I'll bet they have not had sex by the time they get back here" Matt replied

"Game On" Rossi said, knowing it was probably not very nice to make bets on their co-workers' personal lives but it was a strange way of feeling better about them stranded out there, hoping they would be alright.

"You seem pretty confident about your bet" Rossi said to JJ. "Yeah, well I know my girl." JJ said, smirking.

JJ knew that Luke liked Penelope, and that Penelope liked Luke but also that she was afraid he wasn't serious. She knew it could be pretty hard to resist if they were holed up in that cabin together, probably sharing a bed due to the cabin being small and it being cold. But she had a feeling that Penelope had resisted, or Luke had resisted making a move last night, but that it would be much harder to last longer, tonight would be much harder.


End file.
